


Red In Her Ledger

by katling



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Not Steve Friendly, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but veering off from there, trying to redeem Natasha a bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-02-16 13:11:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13054680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: What if Natasha reacted a little differently after the SHIELD info dump? What if she needed a place to stay and ended up at Tony's tower and saw what the true price of her actions was? What if she decided that there was one lie that was a step too far?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure where this came from other than Natasha's characterisation has, like so many in the MCU, been a bit all over the place. So I guess I wanted to see if I could write a bit of a redemption piece for her.

Natasha had regretted her little performance in the Senate hearing almost before she stepped out the door. She had been trying for a little Stark pizazz but she knew she’d only come across as arrogant and snide. She could almost hear Tony cursing her as she’d walked down the hall, head up, looking for all the world as though she was triumphant. She hadn’t been though. 

She’d been around the Tower since SHIELD fell. Steve and Sam might have had apartments of their own but she… didn’t. She’d always used SHIELD resources and now they were no longer there. Or rather they were but she couldn’t trust them because HYDRA undoubtedly knew each and every one of them. So she’d turned up on Tony’s doorstep, hoping for a place to stay for a night or two, just until she could get her feet back under her. 

Instead she’d been given an entire floor, one that had clearly been designed with her in mind, from the clear lines of sight throughout to the lack of JARVIS’ monitoring if she asked to the small ballet studio in one corner. She had no doubt that there were other floors in the Tower, all carefully designed for the other Avengers. Tony had made the offer for them to stay after the Chitauri invasion but they’d never taken him up on it, each for whatever reason. He hadn’t seemed to care when they’d all turned him down or just ignored the offer altogether but Natasha knew better now. He cared. He cared more about them than he would ever let on.

Being in the Tower had given her a front row view to the consequences of what she and Steve had done. She’d been surprised, the morning after she arrived, to bump into Maria Hill. The former SHIELD Deputy Director had looked tired and frazzled, something Natasha had rarely seen in the past, but it was the flat, angry look she’d received that had gotten her moving. Because she’d had irritation and exasperation, even annoyance and frustration, directed at her from Hill but never true anger. That was when she’d found out the true price of what she had Steve had done. They’d exposed the HYDRA agents within SHIELD, true, but they’d also endangered thousands of good, decent _SHIELD_ agents and technicians and other support staff.

Natasha had once considered the Avengers as the way to erase the red in her ledger. Now she knew that she had just added a whole lot more red instead. If her ledger had been dripping with blood before, it was positively _saturated_ now. It had been sobering, just as sobering as seeing the exhaustion etched into Tony’s face and finding out everything he’d done to save everyone he could, just as sobering as seeing the grief in his eyes when he couldn’t save them all.

It made her assessment of Tony seem like the ravings of a fool. Textbook narcissist? She’d let her prejudices and irritation get the better of her and made herself into a laughing stock. One of the key aspects of a narcissist was that they only cared about themselves. Tony cared about everyone _but_ himself. How had she missed that? How had she let herself profile only the mask he was wearing instead of the man himself? 

She knew the answers to those questions – she hadn’t cared. She’d been deceived by the public persona, believed it and had felt like the job, babysitting a spoiled brat of a billionaire, was beneath her. After seeing everything Tony was doing now, Natasha had vowed to do better.

She had started by watching… and not just Tony. She’d started monitoring Steve and what he was doing while subtly insinuating herself into Tony’s inner circle. Not to manipulate, not anymore, as difficult as it was to restrain the impulse occasionally – well, unless it was to manipulate the damned fool into taking better care of himself – but to watch out for him. Rhodes and Potts were suspicious of her but since the only manipulation they could see was Natasha getting Tony to wash and eat and sleep, they were starting to relax. Not completely, which she approved of because she knew herself too well to not know she would backslide on occasion, but enough.

She gave Steve six weeks. That was enough time in her mind. Enough time to comes to terms with what they’d discovered and suck up the courage to admit the truth to Tony. She waited patiently for every day of that six weeks, helping Tony where she could and expecting Steve to call any moment to make time to speak to Tony.

But he didn’t. He made no attempt and Natasha briefly considered confronting him and finding out why. She didn’t though. Steve wasn’t a child. He didn’t need her holding his hand and prompting him to do the right thing. And since he clearly wasn’t going to do the right thing on his own, Natasha would do it instead. 

In another time, maybe she wouldn’t have. Maybe she’d have seen it as irrelevant or a good way of having something to hold over Tony’s head to use to manipulate him at the right moment. But now, she looked around the spacious suite designed for _her_ comfort, she looked at the weariness in Tony’s eyes, and she looked at the red soaking her ledger and knew what to do.

She’d first arranged for Rhodes and Potts to be there. She wasn’t much good at genuine comfort and Tony was going to need that from people who knew him far better than she did. She’d then coaxed Tony up from his workshop with the promise of homemade piroshky. She wasn’t much of a cook but that was one thing she could make with her eyes closed.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked when they walked out into the penthouse and he saw Rhodes and Potts waiting. He pouted. “Why do I get the feeling I’m not getting my piroshky?”

“You’re getting them” Natasha said. “They’re in a container in the kitchen but… you’re right. That’s not why I asked you to come up. Why don’t you sit down?”

Tony’s eyes narrowed suspiciously but he did as she asked, sitting between Rhodes and Potts. “Alright. What bombshell are you dropping in my lap now?”

Natasha licked her lips and sat down on the coffee table in front of Tony. She clasped her hands in front of herself and looked him in the eyes.

“I’m not really the one who should be telling you about this but I’ve given Steve six weeks and he’s done nothing,” she said grimly. “I refuse to lie to you anymore about this.”

Rhodes and Potts both tensed and glared at her but Tony still looked quizzical.

Natasha took a deep breath then let it out slowly. “During the mess in DC, Steve and I stumbled onto a computer version of Armin Zola. It had all his knowledge and personality.” Tony looked intrigued but Natasha continued relentlessly. There really wasn’t any other way than just getting it out there, ripping the bandage off quickly and cleanly, as it were. “There was a bit of back and forth but the important bit is that Zola implied that the accident that killed your parents wasn’t actually an accident. That they were targeted by HYDRA and were killed by the Winter Soldier, who is… James Barnes, Steve’s old friend.”

Tony had gone very still as she was speaking and Rhodes and Potts had hands on his shoulders. She could see the lines of tension in him as she waited for him to speak.

“Steve was going to tell me?” he finally said.

Natasha nodded. “He said because Barnes was his friend, he’d do it. So I agreed. But I’ve been keeping an eye on things and he hasn’t told you. So… I did.”

“How certain is this?” Tony asked, his face was neutral and his tone flat.

“It does need to be confirmed,” Natasha admitted. “But Zola was far too… _gleeful_ about it. He was delighted that he could tell us, that he could undermine Steve’s idealised view of his friend. My opinion is… he was telling the truth.” She hesitated for a moment. “He… intimated that there was proof in the SHIELD files.”

Tony nodded jerkily. “JARVIS?”

“I shall begin looking immediately, sir,” JARVIS said, his voice calm and soothing.

Tony nodded again and swallowed. He was so very still and it sent a shiver down Natasha’s spine. She was used to Tony being loud and active and in your face. This silent, almost frozen man was… terrifying. She didn’t regret telling him though. She felt… _good_ about that and that wasn’t something she was used to.

“Tones?” Rhodes said gently when the silence went on for too long.

Tony suddenly jerked to his feet and Natasha had to move quickly to avoid tripping him up. He paced back and forth for a couple of minutes then stilled again.

“I need to…” His voice trailed off then he jerked a thumb towards the elevator. “Work.”

He darted towards the elevator and when the doors opened immediately, Natasha suspected JARVIS was at work, allowing his creator to make a hasty exit. When the doors closed, she turned to Rhodes and Potts.

“Did I do the right thing?”

“Are you really asking that question?” Rhodes asked with a frown.

“I lie to people, Rhodes,” she said with some exasperation. “I manipulate them. I even kill them from time to time. I don’t often tell them the truth. When it comes down to it, I actually don’t have a lot of experience doing…” She waved a hand. “ _That_ with people.”

Rhodes snorted and shook his head. “Hopeless, the lot of you.”

“Did Rogers really promise to tell Tony?” Potts asked in very icy tones.

Natasha managed to not smirk as she replied, “Yes. He said Barnes was his friend so he should be the one to tell. To tell the truth, I was relieved. Because Tony and I don’t have the best history and I thought it would be better coming from him.”

Pepper gave her a long look at her admission but then nodded and accepted it. “Do you know why he hasn’t said anything?”

Natasha shook her head. “I thought about finding out before I said anything to Tony but… Steve’s a big boy. He shouldn’t need prompting for something this important.” She cocked her head slightly. “Do you want me to find out?”

She watched Potts consider that then she nodded. “Yes, please. Don’t let him know you’ve told Tony though.”

Natasha’s sudden smile was not a pleasant one and she got an answering smile from Potts just like it. 

Rhodes gave a barked laugh. “Heaven help Rogers if you two decide to team up properly.”

Natasha merely smirked at him. She had never been one to have friends before, Clint being the exception to the rule because the man was essentially a large yappy puppy who didn’t know when to back off and just insinuated himself into people’s lives and stayed there. Coulson had been… perhaps a friend, though really more handler than friend when it came right down to it. She wouldn’t call Tony a friend, not yet. Maybe in the future if she kept herself from manipulating him too much or betraying him. But the potential was there and that… that was something new. A little scary but… nice.

She got to her feet and brushed her hands along her thighs. “Steve and Sam get back to DC in a couple of days. I’m going to go and see Maria and set up some background for what I’ve been supposedly doing while they’ve been away. I’ll probably head up there tomorrow and I expect I’ll be no longer than a week, maybe less depending on what Steve says.”

Pepper also stood and she held out one hand. “Thank you, Natasha.”

She paused for a moment, startled by the sincerity in Pepper’s words. It was the first time since she’d moved in after SHIELD’s fall that the other woman had looked at her without suspicion in her gaze. She was surprised how it made her feel and she gave Pepper an awkward nod before hurrying out of the room. She may never be able to get rid of the red from her ledger now but she could at least try not to add any more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is the first of three chapters dealing with the Tony side of things. I kind of wanted to write all of them before I posted any of them. (It took forever to write the last one.)
> 
> Anyway, this is what happens after Natasha returns from a week in Washington DC banging her head against the wall otherwise known at Steve Rogers.

Natasha gave a tiny sigh of relief as she walked through the doors of Stark Tower. She’d been in DC for a week and it had been a very, very _long_ week. She’d never quite realised how pig-headed Steve could be until she had set herself, albeit subtly, against him. She’d spent most of the week essentially banging her head against a brick wall and now she was just glad to be home.

That thought brought her up short for a moment as she walked towards the private lift that would take her up to her floor. When had she started thinking of the Tower as home? She wasn’t sure and the thought made some of her old instincts rear up and clamour for attention but she firmly pushed them down. She was trying to actually _be_ a better person, not just _pretend_ to be one and maybe letting herself think of a place as home was part of that? She wasn’t sure and for once she was willing to set her self-protective instincts aside and try it. It might end up hurting but then again… it might not.

“Welcome home, Ms Romanov,” JARVIS said as the lift doors closed and she smiled a little. Home. That gave a little outside confirmation and made something inside Natasha relax.

“Thanks, JARVIS,” she said, allowing herself to lean against the back wall now that she was out of sight. “How are things here?”

“About the same as usual,” JARVIS said with amusement and Natasha marvelled once again at how _human_ the AI was. Sometimes she felt like JARVIS was more human than she was.

“Anything I should know about before I crash?”

“No, Ms Romanov,” JARVIS replied. “Ms Potts has suggested that a breakfast meeting tomorrow morning might be more appropriate unless you have anything that urgently needs attention?”

Natasha shook her head. “No, not really. And it’s probably better if I’ve slept before I start talking about this.” She squinted a little. “How’s Tony?”

“Sir has slept three times since you left for a grand total of eight hours of rest,” JARVIS said dryly. “He has remained in his workshop most of the time except for when Colonel Rhodes has convinced him to come upstairs to eat.”

Natasha winced. “That’s not good.”

“No but it could have been worse,” JARVIS replied.

Natasha had to concede the point on that score and she shuddered momentarily as a few thoughts about what that ‘worse’ might have entailed flitted through her mind. As it was, things still stood on a knife edge.

“Have you found any further proof?”

JARVIS hesitated and Natasha immediately looked up towards the ceiling, even though she knew that wasn’t technically where JARVIS was.

“I… have,” the AI said hesitantly. “However I have been waiting for your return before informing Sir.”

Natasha frowned. “Why?”

“I wished to have as many of Sir’s friends present as possible,” JARVIS replied and Natasha’s heart thumped as she realised that JARVIS counted her amongst that number. She wanted to deny it because it scared her so much and yet, at the same time, she wanted to cradle it gently, like a newborn kitten, beautiful and wonderful but terrified that she might inadvertently hurt it. She knew how rarely Tony trusted people and if JARVIS was calling her a friend, Tony _must_ have given the AI some indication that he considered her to be one. “And if Sir reacts poorly to this… you may be one of the few capable of either talking him down or… stopping him in his tracks.”

Natasha cocked her head curiously. “All things considered, I wouldn’t have thought you’d care much about what happened to Steve?”

Once again there was that strange hesitation. In the meantime, the lift had arrived at her floor and she got off. JARVIS’ voice followed her as she kicked off her heels and made her way to the kitchen.

“It is not Mr Rogers I am concerned about,” JARVIS admitted. “I have viewed the video in question and it seems highly likely that the Winter Soldier does not have access to the memories of Sergeant Barnes. I am uncertain as to what HYDRA did to create the Winter Soldier but the circumstances are… complicated.”

“What do you mean?” Natasha asked. “In both parts of that.”

“Howard Stark clearly recognised Sergeant Barnes,” JARVIS replied. “He even speaks his name. However, the Winter Soldier shows no recognition at all, not of Howard Stark nor of his own name.”

Natasha nodded slowly and started making herself a cup of tea. She wanted to ask what this video was that JARVIS had found but decided against it. She’d rather view it cold at the same time that Tony did. “That makes sense. The Red Room program was supposed to be based on the Winter Soldier program and they did their best to remove every trace of humanity from us.” She stared at the kitchen bench in silence for a moment before saying quietly, “Sometimes I wonder if they succeeded.”

“They did not, Ms Romanov,” JARVIS said kindly. “Else you would not have told Sir the truth. You would not have cared enough to do so.”

Natasha thought that was a bit simplistic but she appreciated the vote of confidence anyway. “Thank you, JARVIS. But what you say does make sense. Is that what you mean by complicated?”

“Partly,” JARVIS replied. “If James Barnes still exists underneath the Winter Soldier then stopping Sir from any reckless action prompted by grief and anger would be for the best.”

Natasha finished making her tea and walked over to the couch, curling up on it with her cup cradled in both hands. “He has a right to that grief and anger.”

“He does but grief and anger do not last forever and Sir is, at heart, a kind and compassionate man. Ultimately, once he has had time to grieve and process all that he has discovered, I do not believe that Sir would wish to blame _James Barnes_ for the actions of HYDRA. Or for the actions of Steve Rogers.”

Natasha sipped her tea and acknowledged the truth in those words. Tony was a good man, far better than she’d given him credit for. He had his flaws, certainly, often very big flaws but, as JARVIS had said, he was, at heart, a kind and compassionate man. Just one who was socially awkward about it. Something she hadn’t taken into account when she’d first evaluated him. Somehow the idea that the suave playboy was actually just a tremendous geek who was very good at acting hadn’t ever occurred to her and she’d _completely_ misread him.

“So you want my help to save him from himself?”

“Yes,” JARVIS said. “Ms Potts and Colonel Rhodes have already agreed.”

“So they know about this?”

“Yes,” JARVIS said again. “After I discovered the video, I asked for their advice. The video is very clear and… somewhat gruesome. It is not easy to watch, even for someone who did not know Howard and Maria Stark.”

“So it’s going to be even worse for Tony.”

“Yes.”

Natasha finished her tea and nodded. “I’ll help however I can.”

“Thank you, Ms Romanov,” JARVIS said with obvious relief and once again Natasha marvelled at his humanity. “I shall let you rest now.”

There was nothing tangible to indicate that JARVIS was ‘gone’ and yet Natasha could almost feel an odd absence. When she’d first moved in, JARVIS had very politely asked about her required limits regarding his monitoring and she’d chosen something he’d described as his passive monitoring. He didn’t watch or listen while she was in residence but he did have some remote monitoring that would pick up if she requested his assistance or if there was something out of the ordinary going on. She felt oddly safe and at the same time, like she had privacy unlike anything she’d ever had before, even with SHIELD.

She finally sighed and set aside her teacup. There was no point staying up when she was tired and she also needed to be in good form for tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breakfast with Pepper brings out truths and strategies.

When she walked into Pepper’s office the next morning, Natasha reflected that she wished she could be as put together as the other woman was at this hour of the morning. Pepper looked immaculate and pristine as she talked on the phone and Natasha had no idea how she did it. Not that Natasha _couldn’t_ look like that first thing in the morning but she had to work hard at it. Pepper made it look effortless.

“I’ll call you back later this morning,” Pepper was saying as she walked in. “I have a meeting right now.” She put the phone down and got up from her desk to greet Natasha. “Welcome back. I organised for some breakfast to be brought up.”

He gestured towards the table on one side of the room where there was a selection of pastries and fruit as well as juice and water and coffee. Natasha shot her a grateful look. She’d forgotten to eat the previous evening.

“Thank you,” she said as she took a seat and concentrated for the moment on eating.

“How did things go in DC?” Pepper asked after a few minutes.

Natasha sighed and rolled her eyes. “Steve was evasive and I didn’t want to press too hard in case he got suspicious. I did get some answers out of Wilson though.” She smirked. “He’s more vulnerable to the Widow than Steve is.”

Pepper looked amused. “I’m sure he is. What did you find out?”

Natasha sobered and grimaced. “Steve’s obsessed with finding Barnes and…” She sighed. “And some of SHIELD’s and Fury’s mistakes are coming back to bite us. Hard.”

“Oh?”

Natasha grimaced again. “Fury liked to play games and manipulate people, even when he didn’t have to. I think he’d been doing this for so long that he was unable to think any other way.” She hesitated for a moment. “I… know how that feels. It’s second nature for me as well. You forget that sometimes you don’t need to manipulate people into doing things for you. You can just _ask_ them and give them the reasons why and they’ll do it because they deem it the right thing to do.”

Pepper arched an eyebrow at her and Natasha realised she probably wasn’t going to like what was coming next.

“That was the mistake you made with Tony,” Pepper said. “SHIELD, through both Fury’s and your actions, damaged their standing with him with the shenanigans you pulled when he was sick with palladium poisoning. Fury had the information Tony needed to save his own life and instead of offering it freely and thus reaping the rewards of Tony’s gratitude, he decided to play games. You must have noticed it’s been much harder to get things out of Tony and SI since then.”

Natasha nodded. “We had.”

“Tony still believed that working with SHIELD was necessary but he was no longer willing to make things easy for you.” Pepper smiled tightly. “He preferred to make you jump through a few hoops first. Tony’s a businessman, first and foremost, and while he can and will work with people he doesn’t personally like if it’s good for business, that doesn’t mean he has to make it easy.”

“I misread him,” Natasha admitted, despite her instincts screaming at her to stop talking.

Pepper’s smile was _almost_ malicious. It would have been, if not for the sheer amount of amusement in it. “Yes, I know. I’ve read that personality profile of yours. It is accurate but only insomuch as you profiled his public persona and completely missed the man underneath.” She arched an eyebrow. “It didn’t match your reputation.”

Natasha debated with herself about what to say then once again decided to go with honesty. She’d been doing a lot of that with Tony and Pepper and Rhodes and… it was working. She wasn’t sure if that was the best word to use since she genuinely wasn’t trying to insinuate herself in with them for nefarious purposes. But this did seem to be the way this world worked and in some ways, she did have to tackle this effort to be more human as she might a job. Once she knew the rules, she could work by them until they became second nature. It was how she’d been transformed into the Black Widow after all so she knew it worked.

“I was compromised,” she admitted. “I knew him only by reputation and thought the job was beneath me.” She paused thoughtfully. “I think I was also aware on some level that he was… playing me and succeeding and… I didn’t like that.”

The edge that had been shading Pepper eased and Natasha realised she’d made the right choice.

“Based on reactions to Tony’s behaviour, we had suspected you might be a honey pot,” Pepper said. “We just weren’t sure for whom and were letting it play out.” She smiled faintly at Natasha’s raised eyebrow. “It’s a common tactic based on Tony’s reputation. People have been trying it with him since about a year after his parents died or so Rhodey tells me. He… wasn’t always quite as good at picking them out back then. He’s much better at it now.”

“He’d make a good spy,” Natasha said wryly.

Pepper laughed. “In the short term maybe. But he’d make a terrible spy in the long term because he hasn’t got the patience for it. He gets bored too easily.” She waved a hand. “Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Rogers and Barnes.”

Natasha nodded. “Fury made no real effort to try and… integrate Steve with the modern world and frankly Steve’s shown no real desire to do it on his own beyond understanding a few pop culture references as they come up. It made it easy for Fury to manipulate Steve but… the problem it’s left is that Steve’s not comfortable with the modern world and he’s made no effort to truly understand it and how much things have changed in the last seventy years.”

“When we first discovered that Barnes was the Winter Soldier, I told Steve a bit about what I knew of the Soldier’s actions,” she continued. “Which may have been a mistake. Steve thinks that if anyone other than him brings in the Winter Soldier, he’s going to be tried and executed just like that.” She snapped her fingers. “Combine that with Steve’s lack of integration into the 21st century and his… pining for the past that he lost and we have a problem.”

“And not telling Tony the truth?” Pepper asked.

“It’s not malicious,” Natasha said. “That much I can say with certainty. Steve’s… afraid and that fear is making him selfish. He’s afraid of losing Barnes, his best friend and his last link with his past since Peggy Carter is all but lost to dementia. He’s afraid that if he tells Tony then Tony, with all his money and resources, will find Barnes first and kill him. There’s enough sense in him, past his fear and panic, to know that Tony is going to be upset when he finds out his parents were murdered and that sometimes people don’t act logically when they’re grieving. Basically? Steve’s panicking.”

Pepper sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Rhodey did suggest it might be something like that.” She looked down for a moment then raised her eyes to look straight at Natasha. “Tony is looking for Barnes. JARVIS is… delaying things as best as he can, at my instruction and Rhodey’s agreement.”

“Is Tony aware of that?” Natasha asked, her mind churning over with thoughts and ideas.

“Possibly,” Pepper allowed. “If he is then he’s not complaining about it or trying to circumvent JARVIS. Which could mean that he knows he’s not being terribly rational right now.”

“JARVIS said he found a video,” Natasha said calmly.

Pepper nodded. “Yes. I was hoping to do that tonight. Rhodey’s coming in this afternoon and he has three days leave so it’s an ideal time, especially now you’re back.”

“Should I bring my Bites?” Natasha said dryly.

Pepper smiled. “I don’t think we need to go that far. We both know you could drop him all on your own.” She snickered. “Which would likely distract him enough to let Rhodey corral him.”

Natasha laughed as well then sobered. “You know there’s likely no way to stop him from searching for Barnes.”

“I know.”

“Which means we are, at some point, going to have to confront Steve about this.”

Pepper sighed. “I know.”

Natasha thought for a moment. “Let’s get Bruce back. He’s in India somewhere, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he’s working with some of the Maria Stark Foundation teams there.”

“Tony likes him,” Natasha said. “What’s more, the Hulk likes Tony and I think that might work to our advantage.”

Pepper looked rather dubious. “Because… the Hulk will beat up Rogers for him?”

That dry statement startled a laugh out of Natasha. “Well, I suppose that _is_ a possibility but that wasn’t what I was thinking about. Tony’s used to circumventing both you and Colonel Rhodes, isn’t he?”

Pepper sighed again. “Yes, he is and we have gotten into the habit of letting him get away with it.”

Natasha nodded. “Bruce… and the Hulk to a certain extent… are neutral third parties that Tony _likes_. Also, if Bruce tells him no, Tony knows that Bruce has the Hulk to back him up on it.” She held up one hand. “Now I don’t actually believe the Hulk would ever _hurt_ Tony but I’d imagine if the Hulk decides that he’s going to gently ensure that you’re not going anywhere for your own good, well…” She grinned. “You’re not going anywhere. I have this image of friendly Hulk hugs that are pretty awesome but also very good at ensuring you stay right where you are.”

Pepper covered her mouth as she giggled. “Now that’s one hell of a mental image.” She sobered. “Alright, I’ll send a message to Bruce. We can probably get him back by tomorrow evening, though he’s going to be horribly jetlagged.”

“I think we can manage Tony until Bruce has arrived and gotten some sleep,” Natasha said wryly. “I think it’d be a good idea to let Bruce centre himself before we tell him about what’s going on.”

Pepper nodded and made a note on her tablet and the two women settled in to discuss the basic plan for that evening.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And this was the chapter that was a pain - Tony watches _the_ video. Yep, _that_ video. It goes... better than expected.
> 
> I do have some plans for the Steve side of things but I'll have to poke the muse and see how we go.

When Rhodes brought Tony up from the workshop that evening, Natasha could see that he looked tired and drawn as though he’d been working hard and not sleeping much. That tallied with what JARVIS had told her and she felt herself relax a little, oddly enough. There had been a vague niggle that maybe JARVIS had been told to lie to them ( _her_ ) but that clearly wasn’t the case.

Tony did give them a disgruntled look when he realised it wasn’t just going to be Rhodes with him. “Is this the intervention?”

“Not exactly, Tones,” Rhodes said heavily, nudging Tony towards the couch. “JARVIS says he’s found something and he wanted all of us here when you watched it.”

Tony let himself be chivvied towards the couch. “What is it, J?” he asked as he slumped down on the couch. Pepper and Rhodes immediately sat down next to him as Natasha settled down on the floor nearby.

“The video is quite distressing, Sir,” JARVIS said quietly. “I discovered it in the depths of the information that was released onto the internet. The encryption on it was quite heavy and clearly HYDRA in design.”

The TV then flickered to life and a video with disturbingly good quality began to play. Natasha kept half an eye on the TV and half an eye on Tony. She didn’t recognise the road in the video but from the way Tony’s face paled, he certainly did.

“I know that road,” he murmured.

“Yeah.” Rhodes said, looking as disturbed as Tony.

They both fell silent then as the video played out – the crash, the appearance of the Winter Soldier, Howard Stark first begging for help then recognising his attacker. Then…

Natasha actually sucked in a shocked breath as the first blow rained down from the Soldiers’ fist into Howard Stark’s face. The beating was quick and brutal and not at all merciful. Howard Stark had suffered before he died. Then the Soldier made his way around the car to where Maria Stark was still trapped inside but instead of helping, his metal hand closed around her throat and choked her to death. The Soldier then walked away but not before looking up at the camera and firing his gun at it, destroying it.

“Tones?”

Rhodes’ worried tone drew Natasha’ attention and she saw the way Tony look shell-shocked. He was breathing hard and his hands were clenched tightly on his thighs. As she watched, Pepper took one of those painfully tight fists and slowly pried it apart to take his hand. She winced a little at the strength of his grip but didn’t try and pull away.

“Rogers knows about this?” Tony said, his voice tight and full of anger.

Natasha moved over to sit on the coffee table in front of Tony again. With Rhodes and Pepper on either side and Natasha in front, it boxed him in and didn’t allow him to move easily, not without hurting someone and Natasha didn’t think he’d do that. It gave them time to talk him down, to give him the intellectual knowledge to help temper his quite understandable emotional reaction.

“He hasn’t seen this video,” she said, keeping her voice smooth and calm in the hopes of transferring some of that to Tony. “He wouldn’t know how to decrypt something like that.”

Tony nodded jerkily. “But he knows.”

“He knows your parents were murdered,” Natasha said. “He strongly suspects it was the Winter Soldier who did it. Zola never gave us the specifics but…” She shook her head. “Under the circumstances in which we found out about it, it couldn’t have been anyone else.”

Tony’s jaw clenched momentarily. “And he’s looking for his long lost buddy.”

Natasha winced at the bitterness and sarcasm in those last three words but didn’t hesitate to answer. She had chosen her side and for once, she wasn’t going to change it at the drop of a hat.

“Yes.”

“From the Compound.”

“Yes.”

“Using the equipment I provide and fund.”

Pepper sucked in a breath as though she hadn’t quite reasoned through things to that point yet. Rhodes’ quiet curse indicated the same.

Natasha did not hesitate to give the obvious answer. “Yes.”

Tony’s eyes now locked with hers and she had to control the shudder the look in them caused. Anger, grief, loss, betrayal. It was all there and it made what was left of Natasha’ heart thump unpleasantly.

“Why?”

But still, Natasha did not hesitate to answer. Tony deserved whatever answers she could give.

“He’s scared. Steve is lost and he’s confused and he’s scared,” she said. “SHIELD made a mistake. We made many mistakes but this one…” She snorted and shook her head. “This one was… stupid. Steve was never given any kind of education about the changes that occurred while he was asleep. And he never bothered to do it himself because, in many ways, he hates being here. He has no idea that the advances in psychology and the law would mean that Barnes would not be summarily executed. Add to that, now that Peggy Carter’s dementia is so far advanced, Barnes is his last link to the life he once knew and he’s terrified of losing that.” 

She sighed and shook her head again before meeting Tony’s eyes unflinchingly. “And he’s terrified that you’ll get to Barnes before he does and kill him. He knows you’re smarter than he is and that your wealth and intelligence and political and diplomatic connections mean that you have resources he couldn’t even _begin_ to imagine.”

She paused momentarily. “And he knows that, in some ways, you’d have every right to kill Barnes. He _really_ doesn’t want to admit that but somewhere, deep down where he doesn’t have to actually articulate it and therefore think about, he knows that. His refrain is Bucky didn’t do it. Which is, at least, partially true. _James Buchanan Barnes_ did not kill your parents. I have no idea whether James Barnes actually still exists or whether the Winter Soldier programming wiped him out entirely. But James Barnes’ body certainly killed your parents and Steve knows that. He just doesn’t want to admit it because of the complications it causes to him.”

“He’s being selfish,” Pepper said, her anger obvious.

Natasha nodded to her. “He is. Sometimes I think we forget that underneath the Captain America façade is an ordinary man called Steve Rogers. And right now, he is being a _very_ ordinary man.”

Tony looked down at the hand that was entwined with Pepper’s. “I… don’t know what to do.”

“Tones?” Rhodes said, wrapping an arm around Tony’s shoulders.

“I think…” Tony paused to swallow hard. “I think any decision I make right now is going to be a bad one.”

Silence greeted that statement then JARVIS spoke up.

“Sir? I have arranged for the lower forge to be opened up and DUM-E has gathered a large number of things that need to be destroyed.”

Tony made a soft wounded sound and Pepper’s hand tightened around his and Rhodes leaned in closer.

“Let’s go, Tones,” Rhodes said quietly, coaxingly. “We’ll put the suits on and blow some shit up.”

Tony nodded jerkily. “J?”

“Yes, sir?”

“My suits are not allowed to go outside the building unless there is a genuine emergency. Shut them down immediately if I try,” he said, his voice shattered. “That order is only countermandable with Rhodey or Pepper’s agreement.”

“Yes, sir.”

Natasha let out a breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding. Tony could absolutely find Barnes without his suits but that order was a sign that under the grief and anger and whatever else he was feeling, his formidable intelligence was still working. That he knew he was _capable_ of being irrational and reckless about this but he was going to do everything he could not to do that.

Tony then looked at her again. “Natasha?”

She nodded and smiled grimly. “Leave it with me.”

He nodded as well, then allowed Rhodes to lead him out of the room. She was left with Pepper and when she met her gaze, the other woman looked as wrecked and exhausted as she felt.

“Vodka,” she said firmly.

Pepper gave a start and stared at her. “What?”

“Vodka,” Natasha repeated. “And pizza and ice cream and…” She paused and thought for a moment. “The Princess Diaries.”

Pepper gave a rather teary laugh. “Okay. That… that sounds good.”

Natasha glanced up. “JARVIS?”

“Of course, Ms Romanov,” JARVIS replied smoothly. “I shall order yours and Ms Potts’ favourites.”

Natasha shifted over to sit next to Pepper. The other woman was shaking with grief and anger and just sheer reaction to the whole situation. Natasha had things she needed to do now but her first priority was settling Pepper. Tony was going to need her support and for that support to work, Pepper needed to centre herself again. And if the vodka and pizza and ice cream and movie were as much to settle herself down as Pepper then that was her own business.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha deals with Steve. She doesn't quite say, "Sit! Stay!" but she does come very close.
> 
> This is set about two weeks after the previous chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't remember whether there was anything in WS about Natasha's past with the Winter Soldier so I went with no. If there was, let's just assume it wasn't there or Steve forgot or something else. Anything that makes this chapter work. :D
> 
> Also, I wanted to write a sensible and intelligent Sam. One who is still on Steve's side, because I think that's an important part of the character, but who can also see that Steve is making mistakes and needs to stop.

Natasha sauntered into the small café as though she had been going there all her life. She was dressed much like a regular as well, in jeans and a hoodie, her red hair dyed blonde as something of a disguise. She probably didn’t need to go quite that far but… she didn’t want to draw attention to herself and have people wondering why Captain America and the Black Widow were having clandestine meetings.

Not that Steve knew that they were about to have this meeting. JARVIS was an excellent collaborator once you were on his good side and he’d been able to keep track of Steve far more easily than Natasha could. She could have done this at Sam’s apartment but it was easier to do it in a public place. It meant that Steve would have to temper his reactions and that meant she and hopefully Sam would be able to talk him down from any panic.

The two men in question were sitting at a table at the back of the café, poring over some papers as they drank their coffee. Natasha ordered her own coffee and when the barista handed it over to her, she made her way to the back and sat down opposite Steve and Sam.

“Hello, boys. You look busy.”

She smiled her blandest smile when they jumped and looked at her with wide, startled eyes. Honestly, it was no wonder they hadn’t even _begun_ to find Barnes’ trail. They were the worst spies she’d ever met.

“Natasha,” Steve said with a smile. “I didn’t know you were back.”

“I could say the same to you, Steve,” she said with a pointed smile.

Steve’s expression turned a little wary. “Sam and I have been… busy but we’ve been back in DC for the last couple of weeks.” He looked frustrated. “There’s been some… issues getting hold of the quinjet.”

“Well, with the Avengers’ status a little up in the air after SHIELD’s fall, it’s not like we have any missions,” Natasha said sweetly.

She watched as Steve’s jaw clenched then relaxed and he exchanged glances with Sam. Steve then leaned forward a little and lowered his voice.

“You know I’m trying to find Bucky.”

Natasha made a noncommittal noise. “There was something else you were supposed to be doing too.”

She watched the expressions rush over Steve’s face and realised something. He would never have told Tony. Somewhere in the last several weeks, he’d made that decision. He’d deemed dealing with Tony’s reaction to be too difficult so he was just going to keep the whole thing a secret. It made her glad she’d made the decision she had.

“I’ve, er… been thinking about that,” Steve said, clearing aiming for bashful but, to Natasha’s eyes, just looking furtive. “I… well, it’s not like we had confirmation and I thought it might be best to delay things until we know for sure.”

Natasha kept her response to a single raised eyebrow. She couldn’t help but notice that Sam was looking between them with confusion.

“What’s this?” Sam finally asked.

Steve shook his head. “It’s nothing important.”

Natasha scoffed. “Steve, obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation is not _nothing_.”

“What?” Sam yelped.

“I’m not…” Steve began but Natasha made another scoffing noise that silenced him.

“You’re covering up a murder, Steve,” she said. “Two murders, in fact. That’s obstruction of justice. Committed by an agent of HYDRA. That’s aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation.”

“What are you two talking about?” Sam demanded.

Steve grimaced but when Natasha gave him a pointed look he sighed and said, “We… Natasha and I… found some evidence that Howard and Maria Stark were murdered by HYDRA.”

“I thought they died in a car accident,” Sam said then his eyes widened. “Wait… by HYDRA? You mean… Barnes?”

“It wasn’t Bucky,” Steve said sharply.

“Armin Zola… or the computer version of him that we found… strongly implied that the Starks were killed by the Winter Soldier,” Natasha said calmly.

Sam looked shocked then he frowned. “Steve… she’s right. You can’t cover up a murder once you know about it. That’s against the law.”

“I have to protect Bucky,” Steve said stubbornly. “Besides, it wasn’t definitive proof, just an implication.”

Sam looked dumbfounded. “Steve… you still have to tell someone. Tell _Stark_ at least. They were _his_ parents. He deserves to know.”

The stubborn, mulish look on Steve’s face grew. “No. I can’t risk him finding Bucky and hurting him.”

“That’s what you think of him?” Natasha said archly. “That if he found out, he’d immediately try and kill Barnes?”

Steve’s jaw clenched but he didn’t say anything, Sam looked troubled and Natasha smiled her poisonous smile at them.

“Well, I can inform you that’s _not_ what Tony’s reaction was when I told him and we do, in fact, have definite proof that it was the Winter Soldier who murdered the Starks.”

Sam looked confused but Steve just glared at her. “You told him?”

“I gave you six weeks, Steve,” Natasha said, completely unintimidated by the glare. “You told me you would tell him and I gave you six weeks to do so. Since you didn’t, I took action.”

Steve looked stunned and just slightly panicked, as though he wanted to jump up right then and there and run off to find Bucky. But it was Sam who leaned forward and spoke.

“What do you mean, there’s proof?”

“There’s a video,” Natasha replied. “JARVIS found it. It quite clearly shows the Winter Soldier bashing Howard Stark’s face in and then strangling Maria Stark.”

Sam winced and Steve hunched in on himself a little bit. Natasha was actually a little glad to see that from Steve. It meant he wasn’t entirely gone.

“It wasn’t Bucky,” Steve whispered.

Natasha gave him an unimpressed look but Sam got in before her.

“Steve…” he began before stopping again. He shook his head then continued, “Look, I get where you’re coming from with that and yes, you are _partially_ correct but Steve… man… just because it wasn’t _Bucky_ who killed them doesn’t mean it wasn’t Bucky who killed them.”

Steve opened his mouth to object and then looked confused. “What?”

“Look,” Sam said quietly and calmly. “We know that the Winter Soldier is some kind of brainwashing or maybe even a… a secondary personality of some sort. We don’t know for sure but based on the descriptions you’ve given, there’s a distinct difference between the Winter Soldier and Bucky Barnes.”

“So?”

“ _So_ ,” Sam said patiently. “I agree. _Bucky Barnes_ didn’t kill Howard and Maria Stark but the Winter Soldier definitely did use Bucky’s body to kill them.”

Steve looked confused and he rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry, Sam. I don’t get it.”

Sam gave him a long, narrow-eyed look. “I think you do, you just don’t _want_ to.” He grimaced. “And not telling Stark… geez, Steve, that’s bad. Worse, it makes _you_ look bad.”

Natasha was pleased to see genuine guilt thread its way across Steve’s face. She liked seeing her assessments proven correct. Steve hadn’t withheld the information maliciously but because it was simply too much for him to deal with. He was terrified of losing Bucky.

Sam shook his head. “Whatever trust you had with Stark is gone.” He snorted. “No wonder we’ve been having trouble convincing Hill to loan us the quinjet.”

“Is he…?” Steve swallowed and looked at Natasha. “Is he… angry?”

Natasha snorted. “What do you think?”

“He’s going to go after Bucky, isn’t he?”

“He’s been searching for him.” 

She watched as Steve’s face crumpled and his expression became miserable. It probably didn’t say many good things about her that she revelled in the fact that she’d brought the great Captain America to his knees with little more than a handful of words… but she’d never claimed to be a good person. She was a Black Widow and she was an expert in sliding a blade between people’s ribs and into their hearts. Sometimes she did that quite literally and sometimes she did that with words.

But she _did_ like Steve, even if she didn’t sometimes like what he did or said, so she relented, just a little.

“He’s placed his suits on lockdown, governed by Rhodes and Potts.”

Steve looked startled. “Rhodes and Potts?”

“His _friends_ ,” she said sweetly, making Steve wince. “I asked them to be there when I told him.”

Sam was nodding. “That’s good. That would have helped. He would have needed that.”

Natasha managed to hide her relief in hearing that from Sam. He was a counsellor so she was inclined to trust his judgement, especially when her _genuine_ people skills were so lacking.

“I should…” Steve began but Natasha shut him down.

“You should do absolutely nothing,” she said firmly and when he looked to protest, she glared him into silence. “You don’t have the resources to find Barnes right now nor, quite frankly, would I trust you to do so without causing more trouble.” She was amused when Steve started to look like a chastised little boy. “Do not go to New York. Do not go anywhere near Tony. You’re terrible at apologies and you’ll only end up regretting whatever mess comes out of your mouth.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Steve snapped.

“Be patient,” Natasha said, ignoring his tone. “Catch up on the seventy years you missed.”

“And wait for Tony to find Bucky?”

Natasha glared at him until he backed down and shifted nervously in his seat. “Wait until _I_ find Bucky.” She smirked at him. “I’m sure I’ll have more success since I know not to go galumphing around the place like a pair of undisciplined elephants.” She sobered and looked out the window. “Besides, you’re not the only one with secrets. I knew him.” She looked back at Steve. “Yasha. That’s who I knew him as. He was brought in at one point to train the Black Widows. He… wasn’t kind but he was…” She shook her head. “I saw enough to know _why_ you’re reacting the way you are. Unfortunately, you’re just messing things up right now.”

Steve was staring at her like she’d betrayed him, which only made her want to snort. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She gave him a challenging look. “Would you really wanted to have known? He trained us, Steve. A bunch of little girls becoming assassins. He wasn’t telling us bed time stories. He was training us to kill more effectively.”

Steve blanched and looked away. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Natasha wanted to twitch the knife just a little bit more for the pain and grief he’d put Tony through but it was Sam’s steady eyes on her that made her relent again.

“You’re a good man, Steve,” she said gently. “But you have an unnerving ability to be a monumental ass.” Steve’s gaze flicked over to her and she gave him a small smile. “You’ve already caused the damage, now all you can do is wait it out. I don’t know if Tony will forgive you. I know I wouldn’t but he’s a better person than I could ever hope to be. However, these are his _parents_ we’re talking about here. He might have had a fractious relationship with his father but he loved his mother. Hell, I suspect he loved his father despite everything.” She paused and made sure she had his full attention. “This isn’t something you can just brush off and hope it goes away, Steve.”

Steve just crumpled and Natasha actually felt a twinge of sympathy. Despite their somewhat shaky start, there had been some hope there that Tony and Steve could not just learn to work with each other but actually be friends. They’d have been a good balance for each other. But now… well, now, who knew? Bucky was lost and may not be the man Steve remembered and he may well have also burned the delicate bridge between himself and Tony.

Sam patted Steve on the shoulder and looked over at Natasha. “I’ll take him back to my place. He can crash in my spare room.”

Natasha nodded. “I’m going back to New York and then I’ll be heading over to Europe.”

Steve perked up a bit. “Europe?”

“That was where JARVIS had last traced Bucky,” Natasha replied. She stared at him for a long moment then sighed. “I’ll be informing Rhodes where I am. I’ll let him be the judge of what information gets passed to you. He’s pretty pissed at you right now _but_ he also knows what it’s like to lose someone you consider to be a brother and the lengths someone would go to in order to get them back.”

She saw Steve’s eyes widen at her subtle reference to Afghanistan and it made her wonder yet again exactly how much Steve had been told about Tony. But that wasn’t something she had time to solve today. She got to her feet instead and gave Sam a nod.

“Take him home and keep him out of trouble.”

Sam nodded. “I will. And listen… tell Stark I’m sorry for his loss.”

Natasha gave him a measuring look then she nodded. She didn’t say another word as she made her way out of the coffee shop, her mind already turning towards her tasks in New York and beyond.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do you solve a problem like James Barnes? You send the spies and sneaky people to deal with things, that's what you do.

Natasha had been surprised at how easy it had been to find James Barnes. She’d have been disturbed as well, even suspicious, except she had JARVIS on her side and he could access just about any computer system he wanted. She didn’t want to even _think_ about the kind of processor speed and capability he must have to run facial recognition on a world-wide basis. Thinking about that would only get into HAL or Skynet comparisons and that would be doing a disservice to JARVIS, who had only been kind to her once she’d proved her loyalty to Tony.

And she _was_ loyal to Tony. It had been a disconcerting thing to realise. She hadn’t ever really been loyal to anyone until SHIELD and that had gotten her burnt enough that she had been sure she wouldn’t trust again. But then again, she had trusted Steve as well so maybe she wasn’t all alone. Not that her trust in Steve hadn’t been shaken quite badly recently but it had been Rhodes, of all people, who had advised her not to toss in the towel quite so quickly. She’d thought about what he’d said for a long time before realising that he might well know better than her in these sorts of situations. She could imagine that Tony was both an amazing friend and also a highly frustrating one. In fact, once she’d thought about it, the advice Rhodes had given her had the distinct feeling of advice he’d been given once and was handing on to her.

But loyalty to Tony had come so easily and so subtly that it had almost frightened her. She’d always liked to think that her loyalty was hard-won. That people had to work for it. She’d certainly made Clint work for it back in the day. But Tony had snuck in under her defences without her even realising he was doing it. When she mentioned that to Pepper, the other woman had just laughed and said rather fondly that Tony was very good at doing that.

“What’s his obsession with plums?”

Speaking of Clint, she’d recruited him for this since he was very good at finding high places and watching everything without people knowing he was there. Right now, Clint was perched high over the market that Barnes favoured for his shopping.

“Plums improve your memory,” she said from her vantage point. She didn’t have quite as good a view from the apartment she was in but it was safe and secure and had a good view of Barnes’ apartment. They’d been monitoring Barnes for two weeks now. Partly because they wanted a better idea of how he was coping and whether he was being shadowed by HYDRA and partly because it was taking time for Rhodes and Pepper to make arrangements for Barnes once they brought him back to the US. 

It would have been easier if Tony could pull a few strings but no one was going there. Not now and not until Tony himself made noises about it. Tony needed time to grieve and rage and everything else in between. He shouldn’t and wouldn’t be dealing with Barnes as well. Rhodes and Pepper had been adamant about that and Natasha had agreed. It made things a little more difficult for them but so be it. Last time she’d checked in with Pepper, they’d been making inroads with the various authorities and a resolution looked closer. Barnes needed help, that much was clear, but he also needed to be safe and what’s more the public needed to be safe from him as well.

“Huh,” Clint said, breaking into her thoughts. “You learn something new every day. It’s a good sign, though, isn’t it?”

“I think so,” Natasha replied. “He certainly seems to be able to maintain the break from the HYDRA conditioning. That’s definitely a good sign.”

“Man, Tony must be really fucked up over this,” Clint said and she heard the faint noise of him shifting position. “Bad enough learning that your parents were murdered but to know that Steve lied to him.”

“Well, technically Steve didn’t lie to him since they hadn’t had any contact since we found out about this,” Natasha replied. “But he was certainly _going_ to lie to him and the fact that _I_ had to tell him about it… well, Tony is far from stupid and I think he can draw the inference that Steve was too chickenshit to do it.”

“But why though? I mean, it’s _Tony_. He’s…”

“Ruthless when he wants to be,” Natasha said, her tone chiding. “How many of the Ten Rings were left standing once he was done with them?”

“You’ve changed your tune about him,” Clint said teasingly.

Natasha sighed. “I was compromised going in. I just didn’t know it. Phil probably did though.”

“Yeah,” Clint said heavily. “He always knew stuff like that.”

“But I’ve been living at the Tower since the fall of SHIELD,” she continued in order to distract him from any dark thoughts. “I’ve seen what he’s like when he’s not dying and when he’s absolutely driven about something. It was… an eye-opener.”

“The kids think he’s awesome,” Clint said with a slightly forced laugh. “Hawkeye is just boring old Dad but Iron Man is the best, according to Lila. And Cooper can’t decide if Tony Stark or Iron Man is cooler. Though telling him that I know both Tony Stark _and_ Iron Man did give me back some cool points with Coop.”

“You should take them to New York to visit,” Natasha suggested.

“I couldn’t do that!” he protested.

“Yes, you could. Tony wouldn’t mind and you saw what he was like during the hospital visits he did after the invasion.” Natasha smiled slightly. “He’s absurdly good with kids even if he denies it to his dying breath.” She paused. “Besides, he could do with some cheering up and a distraction and Cooper and Lila would certainly provide that. They might also give him some perspective. He’s been cooped up and brooding ever since he saw that video.”

Clint made a noise. “Man, that video. Good thing you had Rhodes and Potts there for that one. Imagine if he saw it alone?”

“Or worse,” Natasha said. “With Barnes or Steve or both of them there.”

“Yee-ouch,” Clint said. “That doesn’t even bear thinking about. Wait.” Natasha tensed but then relaxed again when Clint continued. “Oh, okay… no, it’s okay. Some old guy approached Barnes but it’s just the guy he does odd jobs for. So, how much longer are we going to be watching this guy?”

Natasha leaned back in her chair. “Not much longer, I hope. I spoke to Pepper last night and she said they have a tentative agreement in place. They just need to get all parties to sign off on it.”

“And Cap?”

“Hasn’t been told yet,” she said. 

“Uhhh.”

“Sam knows and he made the decision to keep it quiet,” Natasha said. “He doesn’t think Steve would react well. We don’t need him here barging around like a bull in a china shop and making things worse.”

“You know the Mythbusters proved that the bull in a china shop thing isn’t true,” Clint said.

“For a very strange definition of what a china shop is,” Natasha countered. “China shops are usually more confined than a stockyard with a few shelves in it. And my point still stands.”

“Yeah, I know.” Clint made a chuffing sound. “He’s going to be pissed though.”

“Don’t worry about Steve,” Natasha said. “I’ve got him handled.”

Clint snickered. “Tash? Did you get him by the short and curlies?”

“Something like that,” Natasha said smugly. “He promised me he’d tell Tony and he broke that promise. I’ve got him over a barrel.” She paused. “But because he’s a friend, I’m going to be nice about it.”

Clint snickered again. “Your nice is still terrifying.”

“As it should be,” Natasha said. “Besides, I’m learning all sorts of things from Pepper. She’s terrifying in entirely different ways.”

“Female CEO in a male-dominated business.” She could almost hear Clint’s shrug in his voice. “Of course she’s terrifying.”

“I like her.”

Clint outright chortled. “Of course you do.” His laughter suddenly cut off and he became strictly professional again. “Okay, he’s on the move. Looks like he’s heading back to his apartment but I’ll follow to make sure.”

“Okay,” Natasha said. “Stay out of sight.”

The comms clicked Clint’s acknowledgement and Natasha moved to the window that overlooked Barnes’ apartment. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that there wasn’t a chance they’d given themselves away but if they had, Barnes didn’t seem inclined to run. She’d take that as a win and as she settled down again, she sent a quick text to Pepper to get an update. The sooner they could get Barnes into Avengers’ custody, the better.


End file.
